1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to network device connecting system, data transmission device, data receiving device, and portable terminal using a network.
2. Description of Related Art
It has become popular in recent years to interconnect devices such as computers, scanners, copiers, and printers via a network in order to allow them to communicate with each other. The user can, for example, transmit data stored in a hard disk of one of the computers over the network to a printer located at a different place to be printed on paper.
However, if the printer is located far from the transmission side computer, there is a possibility that someone else can view the printed matter before the user arrives at the printer, which is undesirable in some cases from the standpoint of confidentiality. Furthermore, if the user is far from the computer where the data is stored due to reasons such as a business trip, the user may wish to print the data by a printer located nearby.
In order to solve these problems, a directive type printer, which requests a computer to send a specific data stored in a storage unit such as a hard disk thereof, and prints the data received on paper, has been proposed.
However, the directive type printer of the prior art requires setting of parameters such as IP address in order to be connected with the data storage unit of network device such as a computer where the data is stored, so that the process is complicated. When the data has to be printed using printers, in particular, the user has to perform the abovementioned setting at each printer each time so that it deteriorate the work efficiency considerably.
Meanwhile, the portability is an important issue for portable terminals, and size and weight reductions and power saving are emphasized in the development of new products. Thus, the portable terminals often have severe restrictions on functions other than communications. For that reason, it has been proposed to supplement the functions of a portable terminal by using another device located nearby to realize the functions that the portable terminal does not have.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-284847 (A) discloses a portable wireless communication system using cellular phones, PHS (Personal Handy phone System), land mobile radiotelephones, pagers, etc. This system allows the user to receive facsimile transmission at a portable terminal carried by the user and print received image data by any facsimile device where the user is located.
However, according to the above invention, the entire facsimile data has to be received and stored into the storage unit of the portable terminal. Therefore, the transmission and reception of the data is restricted by the capacity of the storage unit of the portable terminal. Moreover, the aforesaid invention cannot be applied to transmission and reception of data other than facsimile data so that its usage is limited.